


On the way to Kuat

by spaceyquill



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, General Ahsoka
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-17
Updated: 2017-02-01
Packaged: 2018-09-09 07:11:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8880739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceyquill/pseuds/spaceyquill
Summary: The war between the Galactic Republic and Separatists raged for nearly three years before Chancellor Palpatine was exposed as the mastermind behind it all. Losing his authorization to control the clone army, he fled to the safety of Separatist space to depose Dooku and lead in his stead, wielding their all-droid army. Turmoil and loyalties flared on both sides, and those still in the Republic buckled in for continued years of conflict.





	1. Hyperspace

**Author's Note:**

  * For [anaraine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/anaraine/gifts).



Skywalker’s flagship resonated with the low hum of the ship taxiing to the mandatory distance outside of Coruscant’s orbit for a jump to lightspeed. The bridge personnel were only mildly impeded by the gaggle around the holoterminal; their general usually invited more officers to the mission briefings than other Jedi normally did.

“We’ll dock at the Drive Yards for about four hours,” Ahsoka said as the translucent image of the planet Kuat with its manufactured rings bloated to span the length of the holoterminal, casting her clone audience in blue light. “Commander Rex, is that enough time for your men to load up the new starfighters?”

Rex straightened some between Jesse and Appo. “Yes, General.”

“We’re on a tight schedule as it is,” Ahsoka reminded the faces around her, reflecting a familiar weariness even though their mission was just starting.

The planet Mygeeto, a hard-won fight spanning the first few years of the war, had slipped once more into chaos. Several Jedi masters and their armies already battled the Separatist resurgence planetside, but not a day went by that they didn’t send messages back to Coruscant requesting help. When Kuat Drive Yard's technicians heralded their newest line of starfighters as breakthrough technology, the Council immediately tasked the 501st to transport them to the fight.

“We’ll arrive in thirteen hours, so Blue Squadron needs to be on standby in twelve. Rex, task four additional platoons to help. Otherwise, dismissed.”

The clones around the terminal snapped to attention before dispersing—all except for Rex, looking about as exhausted as Ahsoka felt but still managed to cheer her up with a nod of encouragement.

The rank of general had come with Ahsoka’s ascension to Jedi Knight, and Rex earned the promotion to commander of the 501st. Instead of being assigned to her own unit of clones—because after all, supplies everywhere, even clones, were low, and Kamino could barely keep up with the galactic-wide demand for replacements—Anakin let her inherit the 501st while he took frequent solo missions. Currently, he was on a joint mission with the 212th, as the only 501st member with them to qualify for the designation of "joint."

“Do you have those reports for me, sir?” Rex asked from his side of the holoterminal. He’d been much more formal ever since their change in rank, and sometimes Ahsoka just wanted to shake him until she got the old Rex back.

“I didn’t bring that ‘pad with me.” Ahsoka let a hand slide down her face; there was always _something_ she forgot to do. She never had so many things to keep track of as a commander. “Come on, I’ll grab it for you.”

The corridors already glowed faint for the night cycle, and anyone not on night shift was already in their cabins. The ship felt ten times bigger when Ahsoka and Rex didn’t pass any other crew member on the way to the turbolift.

“How am I doing?” Ahsoka asked as she pressed the ‘lift wall console. No other clone would give her a fair critique and Anakin had been absent since her knighting, as he himself had finally earned the rank of Master. This was despite the Council disapproving of his marriage, of course, which they discovered two years ago when Padmé gave birth to twins.

“You even have to ask, sir? You’re certainly not that padawan that we inherited five years ago.” Rex forced a smirk, but as any happy expression from him seemed so rare anymore, Ahsoka took it.

“Just five? Seems longer.”

“Ten for me.”

Ahsoka laughed only to clamp down on her enthusiasm at Rex’s impassive face. She still smiled at him, though, nudging him as the doors opened and they entered the ‘lift. “I didn’t even notice.”  

But the war had worn heavy on all of them. Ahsoka couldn’t remember Rex resembling the Captain she’d known in the first few years of the war. Not since Fives’ death and the unraveling of their former Chancellor’s plot for galactic domination—which were not unrelated events, as Rex wouldn’t let anyone forget which clone uncovered Palpatine’s plot in the first place.

His single-minded focus in the war was new, however. Apparently it came at the cost of his amicability; Ahsoka was the only one on board who could approach Rex before his morning caf and that was by virtue of her rank alone. Time showed just as plainly in the length of her lekku as it did in the deep stress lines on his face.

For some reason, Ahsoka had the oddest urge to trace those lines with her fingers until they smoothed out. When they first became friends, touching wasn’t uncommon at all—nudging, poking, hair ruffling—but that had all fallen by the wayside well before Rex had been encumbered with this stiffness of formality. A coiling realization in her gut told her they couldn’t return to those early days of their relationship; not anymore.

Ahsoka couldn’t bring herself to break the heavy silence that settled on them, enveloping them the entire walk from the lift to her cabin. The datapad she needed was still on her bunk where she left it that morning, figuring she’d remember it on the way out the door. She presented it to her commander and he fanned it in his hand.

“Looks like I’ve got the next few hours cut out for me.”

“Don’t throw yourself into work already, Rex, not when the mission hasn’t even started yet.”

Whatever Rex was about to say evaporated when Ahsoka ran her fingers down his jaw, catching along his fresh stubble until she reached his chin. Her thumb traced the scar below his open mouth, and with the slightest tug she drew him closer.

“S… sir—”

“We both need to lighten up, Rex. We’ve been working nonstop since our promotions. And besides… we now qualify for the commander-general relationship every other unit seems to have.”

She hadn’t seen Rex’s eyes bulge like that in a long time, and the sound he made wasn’t too distant from a confused aiwha. But he found his voice. “I… we… well, there’s rank, there’s rules, there’s the Jedi, there’s your master in the way first—”

Ahsoka retreated a step and sat on the edge of her unused desk, granting him space. “Not that I’d order you to do anything…” Because after five years, that knowledge still didn’t sit right with her, how loyalty was programmed into their heads as if they were droids. “But, I wouldn’t be averse to it, in case you were wondering.”

She watched his expression as his face slowly cycled from bewilderment to surprise to comprehension. Ahsoka bit her lip, bracing for his response in the utter silence that followed.

Rex, his Force signature as conflicted as the expression on his face, finally took a step forward, closing the distance between them and their foreheads. His skin burned; his pulse echoed in her own montrals.

Ahsoka couldn’t stop herself from wrapping her arms around his plastoid—a unique fusion of all three phases of armor—and holding him as if she could disperse his inhibition by proximity alone.

The silence was comfortable now. Ahsoka couldn’t bring herself to open her eyes. She drew him closer, between her legs so he was nearly flat against herself. Rex discarded the datapad on the desktop in favor of resting his hands on her hips.

She reached up once more to feel his stubble under her fingertips and her resulting smile was immediately extinguished by Rex’s lips colliding with hers, a warm pressure that angled her back as he leaned into it. The uncertainty radiating from him vanished, revealing the underlying stubborn drive that felt much more like the Rex she knew. Ahsoka’s hand trailed to the back of his shaved head just as his gloves slid up her sides and they held each other tight, both refusing to break the kiss.

It had been years since Ahsoka started looking at Rex as more than a friend. Something about working with him on Onderon sparked a new appreciation in her of her captain, only cemented through the whirlwind scandal that was Palpatine’s removal, then Utapau and on. Finally she could act on what she’d only hidden deep in her mind to avoid even her former master’s innate perception.

The release in just one kiss left both of them soon breathless and back to resting their foreheads against one another. Rex’s gloved hand stroking her side was something Ahsoka hoped he’d never stop.

“Not what I was expecting when I came for those reports,” Rex intoned, and Ahsoka could just sense a smile building in his relaxed voice.

“As general, I need to prioritize the wellbeing of my second-in-command.”

“I’m… definitely well,” he said before leaning back in for a second kiss.

The longing Ahsoka had clung to for earlier years together shattered in the face of new prospects ahead—options certainly closed off to them back then; options she’d only fantasized about. And now here they were, completely comfortable with the situation as the surprise had worn off.

By the time Rex left Ahsoka’s cabin, he wore the pleasantest expression Ahsoka had ever seen, like a man unencumbered by half a decade of war. The datapad he needed so badly at the earlier briefing still sat forgotten on Ahsoka’s desk, and he would need to return for it before they reached the Kuat Drive Yards.


	2. Medbay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ahsoka realizes exactly how important Rex is to her

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I continued this au on tumblr, so I figured I'd crosspost it here.

An acrid stench hung in the air long after the battle was over, heavier than the wind limping over the battlefield like half of her soldiers. Blood, oil, charred fuses and plasma burns all converged into the stench Ahsoka associated with death after all these years. The second battle for Felucia had been costly, but it was one step closer to the Separatist capital world of Raxus.

Ahsoka stepped over fallen bodies of men and droids alike. For as many clones had survived and still combed the field for survivors, her surroundings stood eerily quiet. The landscape more resembled a blackened plane now instead of a formerly lush jungle. What few towering plants remained in their vicinity were charred and shriveled, the flora taking as many casualties as the combatants.

The activity now focused on helping wounded clones to the makeshift landing zone where lartys landed to transport casualties back to the fleet’s medbays.

Ahsoka shouldered one clone’s arm—a shiny who survived his first battle despite the extensive burns across his armor—while ARC trooper Jesse supported his other side.

“Have you seen Commander Rex at all? I can’t comm him,” Ahsoka said.  

Jesse’s involuntary hiss wasn’t from carrying his brother, and before he even spoke, Ahsoka’s stomach had already dropped to the ground.

“He was one of the first we put on the medevac, general. We weren’t even sure he was alive.”

* * *

Coric and Kix had enough trouble keeping up with all the casualties before Ahsoka descended on the flagship medbay. The critically wounded had already been shipped to the nearest medical station for proper treatment, and still all the beds were occupied by wounded clones. The medics rushed past Ahsoka on their rounds the entire time she searched up and down the bay for her commander. Finally she grabbed Kix on one of his passes, demanding Rex’s whereabouts.

“He’s in surgery—kriffer was conscious enough to say he didn’t want to be sent away to a medstation, so he’s monopolizing the droids that we karkin’ need out here!”

A wave of nausea swept over her. Ahsoka’s attempts at keeping herself occupied with official duties over the next few hours always ended with her entering the medbay once more, just to see. Kix and Coric turned her away each time because “No, sir, he’s still in surgery.”

Kix commed her during the night shift with news that Rex was finally out of surgery. Ahsoka tore through the ship to find the medbay mostly empty now that treated soldiers had been sent back to their cabins to recover. A few beds were occupied by more serious injuries, and then in the back of the bay, hooked up to monitors with a medical droid checking on him, lay Rex.

Ahsoka slid to his bedside to find what wasn’t covered by a blanket was mostly covered by bandages. But he was awake, watching the droid.

“There you are! I was so worried!” Ahsoka sighed. His head was wrapped in dressing and his face was bruised, but she braved ghosting her fingertips across one cheek anyway.

Rex attempted a smile. “Good to see you, sir,” he mumbled. It sounded as alert as he was going to get.

“I can’t believe this happened—we should’ve never split our forces,” she said, wincing as she took in how little of his skin showed through the wrappings. Ahsoka rested a hand on his. “I won’t make that call again.”

“You sound like General Skywalker now.” Rex’s laugh didn’t make it past the first chuckle before it hissed out in a breath of pain. The medical droid turned without any sort of acknowledgement and proceed on to the other patients.

“How bad is it?”

“I’ll be here for a hot minute.”

“I’ll stay with you,” Ahsoka decided.

“We’ll be back at Coruscant before I’m off of bed rest. Droid said I’d need someone helping me aro—”  
  
“I’ll do it.”

Rex braved another, single chuckle. “That wouldn’t look unscrupulous at all.”

Ahsoka squeezed his hand. “I want to. I want _you_ , and I know you want me, too.”

“Are we still talking about an assistant, here?” One of his brows arched as Ahsoka bit her lip.

She pressed the softest kiss to his cheek. “Rex, I haven’t been this worried about anyone in as long as I can remember. I’m not going to let opportunities pass us by anymore.”

“So we’re _not_ talking about an assistant?”

Smiling, Ahsoka kissed her commander on the lips, not even caring about the other patients and the medic still around.

* * *

A sharp chirp woke Jesse from sleep in his own cabin, and he had half the mind to smash his comm rather than answer it. But he did answer it with a sleepy whine.

Kix’s voice happily announced: _“You owe me two hundred credits, loser.”_


	3. Cargo bay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clones always find out these things

Ahsoka fought hard for the 501st to be allowed dwell time on Coruscant while Commander Rex recovered from the last battle. It certainly gave others who had been injured time to heal as well, but none of them were as instrumental to her leadership as Rex. Anakin had agreed with her—via holo because he was currently jetting about the galaxy on supposed higher orders, which were most likely his own—and the council begrudgingly acquiesced.

But the war didn’t slow down in the meantime and Ahsoka couldn’t decline when orders finally fell on them to assist the occupation of Mandalore. Up-and-coming soldiers like Appo and Jesse shared the burden of Commander as the fleet prepared to depart.

The day before deployment, Ahsoka uploaded the supply inventory to her datapad in her flagship cabin when her door slid open for Rex to enter, helmet tucked under one arm.

“You’re harder to track down than General Skywalker, sir,” he said. Ahsoka dropped the pad on her cluttered desk, eyes wide and breath caught. She approached him haltingly, as if he was too good to be true. But pressing her hands to his armor assured her he was real.

Her breath came out in a sigh of relief.

“I didn’t know you were back to duty already!”

Rex’s hand wavered in midair and Ahsoka’s eye markings flattened.

“You _were_ cleared for operations again, weren’t you?”

“Technically, Kix said no. But it was a soft no.” His armor cleaned from the last battle and his head wounds healed, it was impossible to tell that Rex had been on nearly a month of recovery that started with hours of surgery.

Ahsoka guided his face closer with the gentlest touch and met him in a kiss. Rex circled a plastoid-covered arm around her and yanked her against his armor with a roughness she wasn’t expecting.

She’d avoided showing up at his barracks room too often while he was recovering, as that would’ve been a dead giveaway to the perpetually running GAR rumor mill, and because of it she’d missed out on greetings like this.

Her wristcom beeped far too soon with a report from Appo that the cargo bay was ready for inspection.

“Need a hand with that, sir?” Rex asked as she pulled away, his arm still firmly around her waist.

Ahsoka grinned at him. “I wouldn’t want you to overexert yourself, Commander.”

He followed her anyway, his bucket in place covering the delight Ahsoka clearly felt radiating off his Force signature.

The categorized rows of cargo lining the bay helped streamline Ahsoka’s checks. She dismissed the troopers hanging about while Rex helped her verify the numbers on her pad. They completed their inventory nearly an hour earlier than expected by the time they reached the far end of the bay.

Ahsoka spared one glance down deserted rows and pulled Rex behind a tall stack of crates. He tore off his helmet before Ahsoka even had the chance to reach for it and they crashed into a wall of cargo as one, attached even more passionately than in Ahsoka’s cabin.

She would’ve loved to get lost in the moment and the warmth and the intensity, but a _click_ and a suspicious pressure against her montrals pulled Ahsoka into a focused search of her immediate area. She pushed a confused Rex to arm’s length, scanning the paths between separated cargo before hopping over a stack of food crates to land in the next lane, where a trooper hunkered.

One of Ahsoka’s eye markings quirked. “Kix?”

The medic fumbled with a holorecorder before hiding it behind his back—just in time for Rex to round the cargo stack from behind and yank the tech out of his hands. The looping playback image Rex discovered was of their private and very compromising moment.

An embarrassed flush clenched Ahsoka’s lekku, but the look she aimed at Kix was pure bewilderment.

Rex, conversely, was the angry one. “Choose your words carefully,” he said with a dark glower.

“General, before you decide to murder me, let me explain,” Kix said, his voice already shaky. “There was a bet going between me and Jesse about you two, and he didn’t believe me when I said you were a thing, so he’s not paying me my two hundred credits.”

Ahsoka dissolved into laughter while Rex confiscated the holorecorder onto his own belt.

She pressed a code into her wristcom. “Jesse? It’s General Tano.”

_“Sir?”_

“Pay Kix his two hundred credits.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The only other chapter I wrote for this au is definitely E and I won't be posting it here bc that would just skew the rating. But it's on tumblr, where it'll stay.


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